Consumer responses to hedonic food products: Healthy cake or indulgent cake? Could dialecticism be the answer?

Abstract

Marketing of indulgent food products with healthy claims (e.g., healthy cake) is challenging, and studies explaining consumer responses to such products are limited. This research addresses this limitation by focusing on an unexamined driver of responses to vice food products marketed as more healthy—dialectical thinking. Three experimental studies using samples from online panels show that dialecticism has a positive effect on consumers' evaluations of such products when primed within a predominantly non-dialectical culture, across cultures with different levels of dialecticism, and as an individual difference. In all three studies experienced discomfort mediates this effect. This research contributes to extant literature by (1) identifying the role of dialecticism in mitigating consumers' aversion to vice food products with healthy claims, (2) confirming the effects of dialecticism at both cultural and individual levels, and (3) highlighting the managerial relevance of dialecticism.